[ BUSINESS BRIEFS ]

Staff writer, with agencies

Thu, Nov 01, 2012 - Page 14

Growth forecast cut hits TAIEX

The TAIEX fell back yesterday as investors locked in gains posted in the previous session, dealers said.

Sentiment toward economic fundamentals turned even more cautious after the government cut its forecast for Taiwan’s economic growth for this year to 1.05 percent, from an earlier estimate of 1.66 percent, they said.

The weighted index closed down 16.54 points, or 0.23 percent, at 7,166.05, on turnover of NT$71.76 billion (US$2.45 billion).

Manufacturing shows recovery

Taiwan’s manufacturing sector showed signs of recovery in September and should have remained steady last month, the Taiwan Institute of Economic Research (TIER, 台灣經濟研究院) said yesterday.

The think tank’s manufacturing index posted an encouraging “yellow-blue” indicator in September, ending six consecutive months in which it showed a “blue” light, indicating an economic slump.

Gordon Sun (孫明德), director of TIER’s economic forecasting center, said he expected a similar result for last month because of increased orders to Taiwanese electronic components suppliers.

Acer to push on with Windows

Acer Inc (宏碁) still plans devices running on Microsoft Corp’s Windows RT system even after it was not selected by the software maker to collaborate on development.

“We have a development team in-house and in the first or second quarter of next year we may announce a Windows RT product,” Jim Wong (翁建仁), president of the Taipei-based computer maker, said in an interview in London on Tuesday.

Microsoft last week introduced its Windows 8 operating system, including the RT version that runs on less power-hungry processors. Wong did not specify what kind of device would potentially run on Windows RT.

LED light bulb sales grow

Sales of energy-efficient LED light bulbs in the first nine months of the year increased nearly fourfold from a year earlier, according to a report released on Tuesday by the local branch of market research firm GfK Group.

GfK Taiwan said local consumers spent NT$990 million (US$33.8 million) on 3.5 million LED light bulbs and tubes during the January-to-September period, just under a quarter of the NT$4.1 billion spent on all light bulbs and tubes.

In the same period last year, Taiwanese consumers spent NT$250 million on 900,000 LED bulbs, GfK Taiwan said.

Japanese invest in Taiwan

Daikure Co, a Japan-based grating plate maker, has invested NT$100 million (US$3.42 million) in a Taiwanese subsidiary, becoming the first Japanese firm to operate in an industrial park in Greater Tainan, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said on Tuesday.

The ministry said the Daikure plant would officially begin production in October next year supplying key components in air coolers.

Separately, Japanese capital venture firm CyberAgent Ventures Inc announced on Tuesday it had bought a stake in a Taiwanese start-up that runs the food recipe social network iCook.tw (愛料理).

According to CyberAgent’s Taipei office the company has invested US$500,000 to acquire between 15 percent and 20 percent of Polydice Inc (寶利拾), whose iCook site has 70,000 registered users and 10,000 user-generated food recipes.

NT dollar stays strong

The New Taiwan dollar maintained its strength against the US dollar yesterday, adding NT$0.018 to close at NT$29.260 as traders took cues from the strength of other regional currencies to buy into the local currency.